Meili Li, the world-wide first Chinese Countertenor to have an international career, enchants the public and the international presse with his "gracefully supple timber", his "versatile voice", his "furios outbursts full of perfectly sparkling coloratura" and with his "outstanding performing skills".
The 2025/25 season sees - next to concerts - his house-debut at Opera Copenhagen, performing NERO in Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione die Poppea", which he also will embody at Theater Lübeck, as well as his debut as ENEA in Domenico Sarro's "Didone Abbandonata" at State Theatre Meiningen, where he already was a celebrated DARDANO in Händel’s „Amadigi di Gaula“.
Further commitments brought him as ADONE in Salvatore Sciarrinos "Vernere & Adone" in stage direction of Georges Delnon and under the baton of Kent Nagano to the State Theatre Hamburg, overtaking the never before snag parts in a very short time,; as
LICIDA in Vivaldi's "L'Olimpiade" to the Irish National Opera Dublin and the Theatre Equilibre in Swiss Fribourg, as well as to the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; where the production was nominated for the Oliver-Award as <Best new production>.
At the ROH Covent Garden Meili Li also embodied
SPIRITO in Monteverdi‘s „L’Orfeo“, ORFEO in Fay Kueen Wang’s WORLD-PREMIERE in the immersive opera „Orfeo“ brought him to the Beijing Music Festival, OBERON in Britten’s „A Midsummer Night‘s Dream“ to the Hungarian State Opera Budapest and the Theater Gießen; ALESSANDRO in Händel‘s “Tolomeo, re d’Egitto“ to the International Händel Festival at State Theatre Karlsruhe; PRELEUS in Fux's „La Corona d‘Arianna“ to the Styriarte Graz, the title role of Vivaldi’s GIUSTINO to the Theater an der Wien, the title part of Händel’s TOLOMEO to the Theater Lübeck; the title role of Händel's TAMERLANO to the Cambridge Handel Opera;
MARCO FABIO in Händel’s „Lucio Papiro“ to the London Handel Festival, ALCASTO in Wilhelmine von Bayreuth’s „Argenore“ to Theater Münster, ORFEO in Gluck’s „Orfeo & Euridice“ to the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival Lismore, RUGGIERO in Händel’s „Alcina“ to the Hamburg Chamber Opera; ASTRON in Michael Tippett’s „The Ice Break“ to the Birmingham Opera Company and LIANG SHANBO in Mills’ „The Butterfly Lovers“ to the Victorian Opera; marking his debut in Australia.
In addition, he sang NIRANO in Händel's "Giuclio Gesare" with The English Concert on a small tour through the USA and UK, including the Barbican Hall in London, the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, Opera Omaha and the Carnegie Hall in NYC.
In addition, covered CHERUBINO in Elena Lager’s and David Pountney’s „Figaro gets a divorce“ at the Welsh National Opera and LINCEO in Cavalli’s „Hipermestra“ at Glyndebourne Festival. And in conservatorie’s productions, he sang the title-part of Stradella's SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA and THE COACHMAN in Dove's „The Adventures of Pinocchio“.
Due to the Covid-pandemic, his debut as APOLLO in Britten‘s „Death in Venice“ at Theater Münster unfortunately had to be cancelled.
Concert commitments include among others appearances with works by Bach, Händel, Porpora or Vivaldi at the Gewandhaus Leipzig; under Maxim Emelyanychev at the Tchaikovsky Conert Hall in Moscow; with Norddeutsche Klangakademie Hamburg, and regularly with Shanghai Camerata.
He sang “New Year’s Concerts” at Theater Ulm; and in summer 2025, he will perform <Les 3 Counter-Ténors> Concerts on a tour in China with L'Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal de Château de Versailles, with which he aloready sang Händel's "Messiah" in Paris.
Meili Li studied singing with Prof. Dengying Zhao at the Central Conservatory of Music, while he parallel was following a BA in Movie-directing and Philisophy at the Peking University.
Subsequently, he continued his singing-studies in the class of Michael Chance at the Royal Academy of Music and with Yvonne Kenny at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and obtaining his MA with distinction (DipRAM)
Meili Li had the pleasure working with conductors and stage directors such as Patricia Bardon, Felix Bender, Alfredo Bernardini, Laurence Cummings, Margaret Faultless, Magdalena Fuchsberger, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Vladimir Jurowski, Benjamin Lazar, Richard Mills, Rachel Dodger, Federico Maria Satellit, Aiden Schvarzstein, Kirill Serebrennikov, Graham Vick, Peter Whelan and Lawrence Zazzo.
London based Maili Li, is winner of the 2nd Prize and the Farinelli Prize at London Handel Festival Singing Competition.
Season 2024/25
